Crazy easy no-sew fabric garland.

Our friends are having a gender reveal party this weekend and I am insanely excited. We are blessed to host it here, and the moment when they cut into the cake and see either pink or blue is going to be the BEST.

All babies are a gift, and extraordinarily special, yet the ones that are long awaited, the ones that seem impossible, the ones that are cried over, prayed in desperation for, are even sweeter. This baby is one of those.

This baby is surrounded by love and family and community and celebration.
Celebrate we will.

I do not know how to celebrate without making a garland.

Garlands make pretty backdrops for big moments and this is a big as it gets.

What I always disliked about the standard garlands (I made one from vintage sheets here, and my up all year rainbow one here) is the annoying tying and tying and tying of knots. So annoying. Projects should never be annoying. Then with the knots, the fabric would twist and turn and the wrong side would show. Annoying and not cute.

So I started making them a new and much faster way. One that ditches the annoying knots and twists and gets your party decor up faster. Which is a must for a procrastinator like me.

Supplies:

1/2 yard each of 4-5 different fabrics

Rotary cutter, ruler, and mat

Twine or yarn or ribbon

Safety pin

30 minutes of your life

Cut your fabric into 2x44 inch pieces.
This will mean that you cut from selvedge to selvedge.
I find that 44 inches is a perfect length for backdrops.
The pesky chevron prints ran the wrong way on the bolt, so I had to purchase 44 inches of each of them instead of the 1/2 yard. This won't happen if you are using a solid or a random all over print, but keep this fact in mind when you are at the cut counter.

Stack your strips into neat little piles.

With your scissors you are going to cut two 1/2 inch or so vertical slits.
Repeat with the top of each strip.
(I totally took this picture on self timer while holding the phone in my mouth. Without cutting off my thumb. With the kitchen scissors because I can't find my fabric ones.)

Next thread the string through the safety pin and knot it.
Then run it through each strip.
(Don't worry, I am painting my nails tonight. Kindly look away and don't judge.)

Before you know it all the strips will be threaded in a happy jumble on your table.
Next you just need to hang it up, spread them out evenly and wait for your party guests.

I'm thinking boy... and I cannot wait to find out.

Then when you are thinking about this momentous occasion when they will find out if they will have a son or daughter, you think of the all the photos and the videos, and the 1970's brick that you hate like you hate ketchup. So you do what any rational person does and paint it a crisp clean white, and wonder how you have lived in your house for five years, with ugly burgundy bricks and survived.

If I had made the garland the time consuming knot way, I wouldn't have been able to give the fireplace a facelift.
Boom.

Boba Fett loving boys need garlands too. And Sarlacc Pit cakes. But that is for another day. Related: see the black hole of darkness behind him? 1970's bricks. I am deliriously happy to never have to see them ever again.